Clockwork Love
by yellow 14
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy wants to express his feelings for his best friend and he uses a clockwork doll to show them. Written for HedwigBlack's weekly challenge.


Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.

AN: Written for HedwigBlack's weekly challenge.

"Wow!" Albus gasped as he watched the little figures dancing to a twinkling piece of music. "Really wow! How did you manage to do this Scor?"

"Well…"

"I mean seriously, this is amazing!" Albus continued in a gushing tone of voice. "I don't think I've ever heard of such complicated piece of magic applied to something so small!"

"Actually…"

"How do you avoid the spells tripping one another up? I'd love to know!" Albus finished excitedly and Scorpius sighed.

"It's not magic Albus," he said calmly and Albus stared at him.

"It's…not?" he said in a slightly dazed voice and Scorpius shook his head.

"It's a clockwork model," he explained as he pointed at the fine, almost invisible wires moving the small figure. "All run using fine wires to keep the figures as small as possible."

"And you made this yourself!? Without magic!?" Albus said in a surprised tone. Scorpius blushed. Albus's surprised look always made him feel a rush of emotions that he had absolutely no idea how to deal with.

"Well it's not really that good-" he started, but Albus cut him off again.

""Not that good!? Scor, it's amazing!" he said earnestly and Scorpius gave Albus a smirk.

"No, amazing is the little automaton that I've just completed," Scorpius said with a hint of pride. "It's amazing, far more complexed and capable than these little things."

"Is that possible?" Albus asked as the little figures danced around in what at first had appeared as a crazy waltz but upon further examination form regular patterns.

"Of course it is!" Scorpius replied with a snort. "It just requires the right touch."

"Yeah, but this," Albus paused and waved his hand at the model. "This is much better than anything I've ever seen. Where did you learn to make this stuff?"

"It started when I was maybe seven," Scorpius said with a flush of pleasure at Albus's praise. "I remember there was an old watchmaker who taught me how to make clockwork toys. I remember I used to watch him from what I thought was a hidden position until he looked at me and invited me to come out of my hiding place."

"Really? He didn't seem angry or try to fi-"

"No Albus. Apparently I reminded him of his son," Scorpius said, cutting Albus off mid-word. "To be honest, it made a good place to get away from home, with my parents arguing all the time."

"So when did he discover you were a natural?" Albus asked as Scorpius fell into a sullen silence. He knew full well that the divorce of Scorpius's parents still weighed heavily on his friends mind. Scorpius chuckled.

"I wasn't. Not at first," he said with amusement. "I made mistakes left right and centre. But I improved as time went on. Practise makes perfect and by the time I was nine I could fix practically any watch or clockwork toy I found. It used to drive my father crazy that I'd used to pick up broken clockwork toys and watches and fix them. My room was littered with them."

"And the old watchmaker you used to visit, what did he think about him?" Albus asked curiously. "I can't imagine your dad liked the idea of you visiting an old man."

"He never knew. He thought I was learning it out of books," Scorpius said with a smirk. Then his expression changed and his mouth turned downwards. "But it made it that much harder to deal with his death."

"Who's death?"

"The old watchmaker. He died when I was ten. By then I'd started to design my own stuff," Scorpius replied as he looked away. "Anyway, I said I had something to show you."

Albus raised his eyebrow at the unusual burst of assertiveness from his friend and Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"I know I tend to be passive, but it does happen. And besides, I really want to show you this," he said and Albus looked at his friend.

"Well lead on then," he said with a wave of his hand and Scorpius led him further into the attic, a dusty affair filled with cobwebs and beams and Albus had to duck once or twice to avoid smacking his head. Finally they reached a room with a small table and a human sized figure sitting there. He had a metallic face on him and the workings were covered up with a rough sheet of cloth.

"I've still got to finish adding the coverings," Scorpius admitted ruefully. "And I really need to finish painting the details on. But the mechanics are perfect!"

"So what does it do?" Albus asked as he looked at the figure and Scorpius quickly pulled out a key and put it in the figure's neck and turned.

"Watch and learn my dear friend, watch and learn," he said cryptically. The clockwork whirred and the figure moved its arm over to the pen at the side and picked up the pen on the table. With a further series of whirrs, it moved its arm back to the paper on the desk and began drawing. Albus watched it carefully, trying to make out what it was drawing.

At first it appeared to be just a series of random squiggles, a nonsense image that made no real sense. But soon it became more. A lot more in fact. The first recognisable part was nose. Followed by a pair of eyes. Then a nose. Slowly the image took shape and Albus let out a gasp as he recognised whom it was.

"Wow Scor, I didn't know you could draw!" he exclaimed and Scorpius chuckled.

"I didn't draw this, I just set the mechanics up following a muggle photo," he said and Albus stared at the drawing in front of him.

"But…shouldn't this be of Rose?" he asked and Scorpius smirked.

"Rose," he said in an amused voice, "is gay, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Albus said as a look of recognition. "I always thought it'd be you two guys getting together. So why a picture of me?"

"Can't you guess?" Scorpius asked with amusement and Albus shook his head. Scorpius smiled and leaned over. "Are you sure?"

"No, I really don't g-"

Albus was suddenly cut off by Scorpius kissing him on the lips and soon Albus was returning the kiss with equal fervour, even though he couldn't believe what Scorpius was doing.

"Took you long enough!" Albus said with amusement and Scorpius stared in disbelief. "Come on Scor, I've been in love with you since we first met on the Hogwarts Express."

"B-b-b-" Scorpius stuttered and Albus decided to cut him off by kissing him this time.

"I wanted it to be you who told me. I was afraid you'd freak," Albus whispered in Scorpius's ear.

"I'd never reject you Albus," Scorpius whispered back and the two boyfriends kissed and kissed and kissed long into the night.


End file.
